


War Zones

by Unforgotten



Category: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Nightmares, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 05:09:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9056791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/pseuds/Unforgotten
Summary: Sarah goes to Kyle after a nightmare.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



Sarah knows a lot of facts about Kyle Reese, everything Pops could tell her. She knows when he was born. She knows how old he was when he came back in time. She knows the weapons he's proficient with. She knows when he died, down to the hour; she knows when and she knows how, and she knows the three months they've had together here in 2017 are three months more than they ever should have had.

What she doesn't know are the things that seem the most important, now that they're safe, now that they've supposedly won the war. She doesn't know how they connected in that other life, the one where she was normal until the T-800 came for her, the one where Kyle was the one to save her. She doesn't know how it was between them for the one night they shared together.

She is certain of one thing, though: that night couldn't have been anything like this. Kyle's pulse couldn't have felt this familiar, this comforting against her palms, where she's holding his wrists above his head. The feel of him beneath her, inside her, whatever kind of release it was in that life, couldn't have come as such a relief.

She's come to him after his nightmares before, but this is the first time she's come after one of hers. If she closes her eyes, she'll see him again, lying broken and still at the feet of a machine, one that didn't even bother coming after her. It got one of them, after all; its work was done. So she keeps her eyes open as she moves on top of him. She doesn't close her eyes, even though he's looking at her like he loves her, the way he always does, every time. It still feels so dangerous that she has to bite her lip to keep from telling him to stop it. If she could close her eyes, that would be better, but she can't, because looking at him is the only way she can know for sure that she's fucking a man and not a corpse. It's the only way she can be certain he's real.

After they're finished, and she's lain beside him for long enough for him to drift off again, she goes back to her own room. She can't stay, any more than she's ever able to stay. She won't be able to sleep if she does, some part of her convinced that letting her guard down enough to drift off beside him will get him killed. Meanwhile, another part of her, the part that always wakes up first, is convinced that any man-shaped object lying next to her in the dark is actually a machine sent to murder her. The only thing worse than a machine killing Kyle would be if Sarah did it by accident, so she only had to wake up with a gun in her hand once to know that sleeping in Kyle's room wasn't a mistake she could repeat.

Here's the other thing Sarah knows, about how it was with them in that other life: the other Sarah had no idea how little time they had, how quickly she would lose him.

As for this Sarah, the one who exists here and now, the one who hasn't been killed and hasn't been erased, the Sarah who's on the Pill and makes Kyle wear a condom each and every time, no matter how desperate for each other they are in the moment: She knows just how quickly it could all turn, how easily he could be gone forever. 

Maybe someday, she'll go to him during the day, without his nightmares or her to drive her to his bed. Maybe someday, she'll be able to sleep next to him, feeling as safe as the other Sarah must have, sleeping next to her protector. Maybe someday, they'll be able to live a normal life, where it no longer matters that he grew up in a war zone or that she spent more than half her life carrying her war zone with her. Maybe someday, she'll decide she wants a baby with him after all, whether it turns out to be John or not.

For tonight, though, this is what they have, and it'll have to be enough.


End file.
